Identity
by ProDLnEC aka NLcsimiamifanatic
Summary: ONESHOT. I suggest readers read "A Gentle Nudge From a Child." "Who You Are," and "Patching Things Up" (in this order) to fill in any details regarding the characters and the family. Seriously, give it a try!


_**Identity**_

_A person's true identity was based on different things..._

_** NOTE: **Though I mentioned other grandchildren/nephews of Eric's in **A Gentle Nudge From a Child**, it's easier to focus on the four of the more developed characters on Eric and Calleigh's children. The others will mentioned but not in great detail. To fill in the finer details of this story, **I highly recommend **readers read **Who You Are **and **Patching Things Up****. **I suggest one read three of these stories in this order before reading this story. It will avoid many questions._

When Pavel and Chlorinda Delko immigrated to the United States from Cuba, outside of retaining Spanish and traditional Cuban dishes, they embraced everything American. Eric and his sisters did speak some Russian but not much they did Spanish. After being in the USA so long Pavel's Russian was admittedly rusty. Russian like Cuban traditions and customs weren't observed or practised in the home. His grandchildren knew a few Russian phrases, but were fluent in Spanish. English could be considered their first language. They called Pavel "Dedushka"—Russian for grandpa, his wife was called "abuela"—Spanish for grandma. Some people thought that the couple extracting themselves entirely from the cultures in which each was born into was 'depriving' their children of their heritage and it gave the impression that they were 'ashamed' of being Russian and Cuban. The older couple didn't see it that way.

Neither was ashamed of where they came from. They were just embracing the culture of the country that had given their family a life they could never have had on the communist island or in Russia. They had fled Cuba because it was a country of oppression where the government controlled _everything_ in people's lives. Food and clothes were rationed by the government. The amount and types of food a family received was based on the ages and number of children in the family. After children became certain ages, they were not guaranteed basic foods like milk or canned fruit, And if parents wanted to buy these things, they would have to chose between that or shoes for the children, or fuel the stove. People didn't even own the clothes on their backs. If lives was such a paradise and citizens had everything they needed, then _why_ did they beg tourists for dollars? because they didn't make enough pasos to purchase these items, they were so expensive in the country. Why did they risk their lives and those of the their children fleeing the country?

It was because life in Cuba was _nothing_ like the communist government portrayed it to be.

Their children, their youngest, Eric, three months old weren't going to grow up here. Eric was young enough to have no memory of the communist island nation. Their daughters young enough to have little memory and maybe forget the period of time altogether.

Of their seven grandchildren, Eric was the father of four of them. He was married to a beautiful woman named Calleigh whom he worked with at the Dade County Crime Lab. Eric was a fingerprints and trace expert there. Calleigh worked in ballistics. The couple were the parents of Chloe who was seven, Ethan who was three and the twins Nadya and Zachary would be a year old in a week. The couple always knew their only son would be an incredible father. They joked to him that he should write a how-to book to show other dads with demanding and unpredictable jobs "how it should be done." All Eric could do was laugh at the idea. Pavel and his wife was glad that Eric and Calleigh decided to have a big family. Their daughter Rachel had decided she and her husband were happy with their family, They had two sons Diego and Jose. Paloma and her husband Gil said they were finished having children. She had given birth to their second child, Matthew, several weeks ago. The two already had a son named Elijah. Marisol, Chlorida and Pavel's third daughter didn't have or plan to have children. It was ironic their only son had only two granddaughters.

_Eric and Calleigh's Home_

How his sisters and brother-in-laws had decided that two children was "plenty" Eric would never understand. Not that Chloe and Ethan alone couldn't fill their home wirh noise and activity—that they could, in two languages. But still it was something missing, two something's missing in their family dynamic until Zachary and Nadya were born. He couldn't imagine not hearing "daddy," "papi" or "dada"from four different little voices a thousand times a day. His one-year-old children had said their first word "dada" a week ago. Since then they hadn't stopped. They had now started saying "ma-ma" as well. They didn't say their siblings' names yet. Both mama and dada wondered how the babies would pronounce the oldest children's names, thinking it was going to be 'interesting."

One thing was for sure, Eric would not have had this life in Cuba. First and foremost, he would never met Calleigh. That alone would be a _gigantic_ missing piece of his soul and he very well become a father of four but they wouldn't be the same ones he had, and on the communist island, what future each child could have was limited. Their freedom of speech and beliefs would be non-existent. In school, kids were taught that United States were still a threat. Children still practised drills in schools, ducking under their desks in case there was a missile attack from the United States. Eric was grateful that his parents had taken that perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Fortunately his father already had friends in Miami, who knew they coming and met the five at the shoreline. They had given them temporary shelter and then helped them gain legal status and jobs in the country. A year later, the family became US citizens.

All Eric's children were American, not solely because Eric himself was a citizen, because their mother was. In Chloe's case, if people wanted to get technical, _both_ her mothers were, the woman who gave birth to her and then gave her up and more importantly the one who loved and raised her on a a daily basis. The family may solely embraced American ways but Eric and his wife taught their children to be proud of their Cuban, Russian _and_ American heritage. Long before he were a dad, Eric had ideas about how his children would be raised. English would naturally be their first language but they would also be fluent in Spanish. He would also teach him what little Russian he knew. When he had met Calleigh Duquesne, Eric had hoped some day she would be the mother of his children.

And it just happened she were fluent in Spanish.

Calleigh loved Chloe as her own from the moment the two met, despite the fact she wasn't hers genetically and the not-so ideal circumstances of Chloe's conception and birth. The arrival of the little girl had forced them to admit how deeply they felt for one another and made realize they had to either be together or move on and just be close friends. Either way, both knew she would and Calleigh wanted to be a huge part of Chloe's life. Eric supported the relationship between his child and the blonde a "million percent" no matter what his relationship with Calleigh was. He had asked her to be Chloe's godmother for a reason. Still he was overjoyed that being in a exclusive relationship was what they _both_ wanted.

People on the outside could say what they wanted. Eric knew his "identity," his children did, too and where Eric was born was only a small piece of it.


End file.
